Visual and Performing Arts Department

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts is a vibrant and active arts community consisting of a faculty of arts scholars and practitioners of national and international acclaim who are dedicated to advancing knowledge, promoting intellectual inquiry, encouraging life-long learning, and cultivating creativity in all students through teaching, research, scholarship, artistry, and public performance.

Our students are inspired and challenged to uphold the arts, traditional and contemporary, in highest regard, to fully invest themselves in their education, to be actively involved in creative inquiry and risk-taking, and to effusively embrace creative innovations as vehicles for human transformation and cultural betterment. In addition, the department encourages all students to explore and develop a comprehensive understanding of the myriad of significant artistic contributions by African Americans and empower themselves to design a creative vision of their role in the arts within a technologically infused global environment.

Program Student Learner Outcomes

Demonstrate successfully a functional knowledge of music’s grammar and formal structures as related to music theory and music history.

Aurally, visually, and conceptually work correctly with melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of music through sight-reading, keyboard proficiency, and analytical expertise.

Perform at an institutionally approved level on at least one instrument/voice and proficiently complete a capstone experience.

Develop and demonstrate satisfactory knowledge of literature and pedagogical practices for their instrument/voice and its corresponding ensembles to pursue a professional career in music or further study at the graduate level.

Work proficiently with basic music technology, including appropriate applications and uses.

Identify accurately the central musical styles and genres of the Western European traditional and non-western music traditions in relation to the key social, political, economic, philosophical, and aesthetic forces associated with them.

Engage effectively with the music and entertainment industry through mentorship, internship, and entrepreneurial experiences.

Develop a comprehensive commitment to global citizenship through engagement with the art and history of cultures around the world.